Visiting St.Peter

Visiting the cathedral of St. Peters nowaday is not as simple as it was a few years ago. Today everybody is carefully checked before entering from the main entrance, and this causes a long queue of people expecially on sunday. Depending on the hour of the day, you can expect also one hour of queue.

You aren't allowed to bring big bags with you because of the fear of terrorist attacks, this from the security standpoint, and everybody is also carefully inspected in their personal belongings.

Once in the church, your suit should be adequate to the site: you can't expose your arms or legs too much, and this is valid expecially for women.

The visit of St.Peter is extremely interesting. The current architecture of the cathedral has been implemented in the XVI century.

Since a few years the body of Pope S.Giovanni XXIII has been exposed in a crystal coffin in the cathedral, it is easy to locate. The body of the Pope is not corrupted.

It is possible to visit also the underground cemetery, and the terrace upstairs. You can go up until the top of the famous "Cupola di San Pietro" and have a great panorama of Rome.

There are some shops, and you can buy some souvenirs too.

The structure of Rome

Rome is 2 million and a half habitants. The town is not big, compared to many other international capitals in the world. It is full of trees and green areas. The center of Rome falls more or less at the "Fori Imperiali", the heart of the ancient Rome. Around this nucleus the town has been expanding over the centuries.

Rome is famous for its ancient roads, built by romans, and still used nowadays. Well, the old tracks have been modified, but the radial structure is still the same. A few main roads depart from the center of Rome and radially go outside to the extents of the ancient roman empire.

The most important roads are listed below. Please note that each road is called "Strada Statale" (SS, state road) and is followed by a number. Also a notation related to the dial of a clock inform about the direction of the road:

a) SS1 Aurelia, at 9 o' clock, initially goes west (9 o' clock) then goes north-west and reaches France
b) SS2 Cassia, at 11 o' clock: goes to the north of Italy
c) SS3 Flaminia, at midday: goes to the north
d) SS4 Salaria, at 1 o' clock, goes north est
e) SS5 Tiburtina, at 3 o' clock, goes to est
f) SS6 Casilina, at 4 o' clock
g) SS7 Appia, at 5 o' clock

Several less important roads (SP, Strada Provinciale, provincial road) also are interesting: via Nomentana and via Prenestina, for example.

Via Appia and via Prenestina still present, in some places, the original stone track that was built 2 thousand and more years ago. These places are worth being visited.

Rome is surrounded by a ring road, called GRA (Grande Raccordo Anulare) that has a radius of 10 kilometers (approx). GRA encompassess the whole town. Driving the GRA you will cross all the above mentionned roads.